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TCNJ Magazine - Spring 2016

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13
MATT
FURMAN
13
Repost: 1984 Olympics
Orlando Cáceres '90 came so close to capturing the bronze in men's freestyle wrestling.
We asked him to reminisce about the experience.
"A guy approached me before one of my
matches and told me to get a hold of him
afterward, that he could get me video of all
my Olympic matches. But I got whisked
away to take a drug test and I never saw him
again. I always wanted those tapes.
"Then a year or two ago, a video of me
wrestling at the Olympics pops up on
YouTube. A coworker found it and told me.
It was wild watching that. I always thought
I was out of shape and goofy when I
wrestled, but when I saw that video
I thought, 'Oh my God, look at me.' My
coworker told me I looked like Lionel
Ritchie with all that hair. I vaguely
remembered the match, so it was great to
relive that moment. But the best part was
that my wife and daughter got to see it."
—as told to Brandon Gould
"I was born in Puerto Rico, so I have dual
citizenship. Two of my teammates were also
from the United States: Carmelo Flores
from Chicago and Mark Cabrera from
New Jersey. It's funny because when the
three of us went over there to try out, we
were the Americans. Then I'd come back to
the States, and I'm the Puerto Rican. I
remember thinking, 'So what am I?' [laughs]
"Competing in the Olympics was a dream
come true. It was surreal running into Carl
Lewis: I wasn't on the U.S. team, but I'm still
an American, so to be in the company of
someone like him was unbelievable. I
crossed paths with so many great athletes.
Some of them couldn't speak a lick of
English, and I couldn't speak a lick of theirs,
but we all had a common goal. That's what
made the experience so amazing.